ARTICLES ABOUT SATELLITE BY DATE - PAGE 5

Dish Network is hosting its own elimination chamber, with the satellite service it will no longer offer WWE's pay-per-views, including April's " WrestleMania 30." The move comes as WWE is about to launch a digital network on Feb. 24, which will include all of its 12 PPVs, including Sunday's "Elimination Chamber" and "WrestleMania," as well as a slate of original series. Company is charging $9.99 a month for subscriptions to the service. Dish said it was upset that the network was being launched without WWE's TV partners.

At least two Chicago-area companies that set up satellite offices in Kankakee to cut their sales taxes have ended their arrangements, and others are having second thoughts about the controversial tax-reduction strategy. Medline Industries Inc., based in Mundelein, and Franklin Park-based The Hill Group have in recent weeks informed Kankakee officials they will close their offices in the city, about 60 miles south of Chicago, according to correspondence the Tribune obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. Through their remote offices, the companies had relocated the site of sales transactions from their headquarters to Kankakee to take advantage of the city's sales tax rate of 6.25 percent, which is lower than the 8 percent levy in Mundelein and Franklin Park.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government is making "great strides" in its drive to reform unwieldy export rules, and expects to unveil proposed changes covering exports of satellites, electronics and chemicals this year, a senior White House official said Tuesday. Caroline Atkinson, deputy national security adviser for international economics, said an inter-agency working group had already modified regulations for 13 of 21 categories on the U.S. Munitions list, which together account for about $80 billion in U.S. exports and support about 450,000 U.S. jobs.

Broadcast network affiliates and station groups are launching a new coalition, TVfreedom.org , designed to counter the influence of cable and satellite operators in retransmission disputes, some of which have resulted in high-profile blackouts in major markets. The organization was formed as cable and satellite firms have been pressuring Congress to look at changing regulations governing retransmission consent negotiations, arguing that they are outmoded and unfairly give broadcasters more leverage in such disputes.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - An unmanned rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Thursday to put the newest member of NASA's space communications network into orbit. The 19-story tall Atlas 5 rocket, built and launched by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Lockheed Martin Corp and Boeing Co, lifted off at 9:33 p.m. EST (0233 GMT Friday). With the 3.8-ton (3,447-kg) Boeing-built Tracking and Data Relay Satellite perched on its nose, the rocket blazed through clear, star-filled skies as it headed southeast over the Atlantic Ocean toward orbit.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) - A Space Exploration Technologies' Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on Monday to put a commercial communications spacecraft into orbit for Thai satellite operator Thaicom. The 224-foot-tall rocket lifted off its seaside launch pad at 5:06 p.m. (2206 GMT), soaring through overcast skies as it headed toward the satellite's drop-off point more than 55,000 miles above Earth, or about one-quarter of the way to the moon.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's homegrown satellite navigation system will bring untold economic, social and military benefits and other countries in Asia are welcome to use it, the director of China's satellite navigation agency said on Friday. The year-old Beidou satellite navigation system is a rival to the U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) and Russian GLONASS. Beidou's 16 satellites serve the Asia-Pacific but the number of satellites is expected to grow to 30 by 2020 as coverage expands globally.